Forum: The stuff that myths are made of - Science and technology have an extraordinary capacity for stimulating the imagination

IT WOULD be interesting to conduct a survey of the scientists and technologists who read this magazine. Why are you in that particular line of work? What is it all for? I suppose many would answer 'It pays my bills' or 'It keeps me off the streets'. But probably most, one way or another, would also say something about the contribution your work has to make to society at large.

'I am helping to expand the total sum of human knowledge,' you might say, or you might point to some more practical benefit: 'I am helping to feed the world,' 'I am discovering newer and faster ways of communicating,' 'My work will help doctors to save lives.' Many of you, of course, will be involved in the defence industry, and thus, in a sense, in the business of shortening human lives, but no doubt you are contributing to the common ...

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